Experienced Management Team

Wesley D. Sterman, M.D.

President and Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Sterman is a healthcare executive and investor, who has founded, directed, managed, and funded numerous companies. Prior to PharmacoFore, he was a founding director and investor of Theravance, Inc., which went public in late 2004. Before Theravance, Dr. Sterman founded and acted as CEO of Heartport, Inc., a manufacturer of less invasive cardiac surgery products, which was taken public in 1996. Heartport was acquired by Johnson & Johnson in 2001. Previously, Dr. Sterman was founder and CEO of EndoVascular Technologies, Inc. Following its IPO, the company was acquired by Guidant, Inc., which is now a division of Boston Scientific, Inc. Prior to that, he led the healthcare investment efforts at Menlo Ventures. During his tenure there, Gilead Sciences, now a $30 billion public biotechnology company, was incubated internally at Menlo Ventures. Dr. Sterman holds a California medical license and earned both M.D. and M.B.A. degrees from Stanford University. He currently serves as a voluntary instructor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. 

Narinder Banait, Ph.D., J.D.

Vice President, Intellectual Property

Dr. Banait joined PharmacoFore with over twenty years of experience as an intellectual property attorney and as a research scientist in the pharmaceutical industry. Most recently, he was a partner at Fenwick & West LLP. His practice focused on patent preparation and prosecution, developing comprehensive patent portfolio strategies for companies, supporting IP litigation, merger and acquition, and working with the venture capital community to fund and build over two dozen life sciences start-up companies. Prior to entering the legal profession, Dr. Banait was a research scientist at Roche and Syntex where he developed drugs for emesis, pain and anxiety disorders. Dr. Banait has published numerous scientific papers as well as articles on patent law and portfolio strategy. He obtained his B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. at the University of Toronto, post-doctoral fellowships at Brandeis University and University of California at Santa Barbara, and J.D. at Santa Clara School of Law.

Thomas E. Jenkins, Ph.D.

Vice President, Research and Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Jenkins has more than 20 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Before PharmacoFore, Dr. Jenkins was a co-founder, Senior Director of Medicinal Chemistry, and Senior Project Leader at Theravance, Inc., where he co-invented a drug design approach that has yielded over seven development candidates and an approved drug. At Theravance, he led multidisciplinary teams that discovered and developed novel antibiotics, a novel hypnotic agent, a long-acting anesthetic, and an anti-muscarinic drug. Before Theravance, Dr. Jenkins was a Senior Scientist at Axys Pharmaceutical, Inc. He holds a B.S. from the University of Akron and a Ph.D. from Stanford University. He was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at U.C. Berkeley.

Judy A. Magruder, MBA

Vice President, Operations

Ms. Magruder is a pharmaceutical executive and consultant with more than 25 years of pharmaceutical experience. Prior to PharmacoFore, she was President of VSI Development Company, where she consulted with numerous San Francisco Bay Area pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Before that, she was Senior Vice President of Development at Durect Corp. where she led development programs and supervised various functional areas, including Project and Portfolio Management, Regulatory Affairs, Clinical Operations, and Quality Assurance, with budgetary responsibilities in excess of $25 million. She has also worked for Vascular Therapeutics, and spent more than 15 years in a variety of positions at ALZA Corp. leading and contributing to a number of successful product development efforts and product approvals. Ms. Magruder is an inventor and holds 48 United States patents. She earned a B.S. in Animal Science from the University of California at Davis and an M.B.A from Santa Clara University.

Greg Sturmer, MBA

Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Sturmer is a healthcare executive with more than 25 years experience. Prior to joining PharmacoFore, Mr. Sturmer was Vice President, Finance and Investor Relations at Theravance, Inc. for seven years. As a member of the Theravance Senior Leadership Team, Mr. Sturmer was responsible for strategic and financial planning and investor relations as the company transitioned from a start-up to a publicly traded company (NASDAQ: THRX) nearing commercialization of its first product. Mr. Sturmer also served as a member of negotiating teams that completed two landmark strategic partnerships with GlaxoSmithKline. Previously, he was Corporate Controller of Vivus, Inc., a biotechnology company; CFO of a Northern California hospital; and a manager with Arthur Andersen, LLP. Mr. Sturmer is a Certified Public Accountant and earned an M.B.A. from Pepperdine University and a B.S. summa cum laude from California State University, Hayward.